When Drake Maye was nine years old, he watched Aaron Rodgers dismantle the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. That game didn’t just stick with him. It shaped him. Maye started studying Rodgers obsessively, right down to his throwing motion and pregame warmup routine. Fast forward to 2025, and the same kid is now an NFL starter, getting compared to Rodgers by opposing coaches, while Rodgers himself is winding down what could be his final season at 41.
How did Drake Maye become so obsessed with Aaron Rodgers growing up?
It wasn’t just casual admiration. Maye carried an Aaron Rodgers phone case for years. He would pull up warmup clips on YouTube trying to decode how Rodgers gripped the ball and released it. “Shoot, it’s hard to emulate the way he spins it. I mean, he spins it with the best of ’em,” Maye said recently. That kind of fixation from a young quarterback is unusual. Most kids pick a favorite player. Maye picked a blueprint.The Patriots selected Maye with the third overall pick in the 2024 draft, and from the moment he arrived in New England, the Rodgers comparisons followed him. He even got his boyhood moment when the Patriots faced the Jets in Week 3 of 2024. After the game, Maye lingered on the field, waiting. “I’m waiting for the GOAT,” he told NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. He finally approached Rodgers, shook his hand, and said, “Big fan. Best of luck.” Rodgers kept whatever he said next to himself. A private conversation, he noted.That moment felt symbolic. The veteran acknowledging the kid quietly. The kid still starstruck but clearly ready.
Is Drake Maye already playing like Aaron Rodgers in the NFL?
The numbers in his second season suggest something real is developing. Maye has thrown for 1,744 yards with 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions, ranking sixth in the league in passing yards. An anonymous NFL coach watching him carved up the Titans told The Athletic’s Mike Sando that a deep ball Maye threw to Mack Hollins on a 93-yard scoring drive was flat-out “Rodgers-like.” That’s not a throwaway comparison. That’s a defensive coach, watching tape, reaching for one specific name.Rodgers, meanwhile, just beat the Patriots in Week 3 of the 2025 season, 21-14, throwing the game-winning touchdown with two minutes left. He had the last word that day. But Maye, who finished with a 102.1 passer rating in that loss, isn’t far behind. The gap is closing faster than anyone expected.What makes this storyline different from the usual passing-of-the-torch narrative is that Maye didn’t just idolize Rodgers from a distance. He studied him the way a student studies a subject. Every warmup rep. Every release point. Now those lessons are showing up on actual NFL Sundays, against actual NFL defenses.Rodgers threw his first NFL touchdown pass in 2005. Drake Maye was barely five years old.